First long distance youth tournament

[upstater]

We're in Columbus, Ohio.

This is madness.

Hundreds of hotels jam-packed with soccer players.

We have only done tournaments within 2 hours of home in the past.

New club this year--we're traveling.

Holy hell.

Is this a version of hell?

 

[ZooCougar]

We're in Columbus, Ohio.

This is madness.

Hundreds of hotels jam-packed with soccer players.

We have only done tournaments within 2 hours of home in the past.

New club this year--we're traveling.

Holy hell.

Is this a version of hell?

Welcome. We did one in Manhattan, Kansas a few weeks ago, and another coming up in Omaha. Not sure why we need to leave KC to find games. US Soccer baby!

 

[DaveHuskiesFan]

We're in Columbus, Ohio.

This is madness.

Hundreds of hotels jam-packed with soccer players.

We have only done tournaments within 2 hours of home in the past.

New club this year--we're traveling.

Holy hell.

Is this a version of hell?

Welcome to the first of many. My club team had tournaments in Maine, Vermont, Cape Cod, New Jersey, Virginia, and Florida in my years of playing. Fun for the kids, nightmare for the parents.

 

[upstater]

Welcome. We did one in Manhattan, Kansas a few weeks ago, and another coming up in Omaha. Not sure why we need to leave KC to find games. US Soccer baby!

We could easily find these games in our area. Nothing special out here, and our girls were in the highest premier division. Nike sponsors this thing.

 

[Chuck]

We could easily find these games in our area. Nothing special out here, and our girls were in the highest premier division. Nike sponsors this thing.

Are the kids having fun at least? My friends on that tourney circuit are miserable, but I guess if the kids are having fun it's okay.

My son is feeling really stretched this spring with soccer and lacrosse. He has Sever's Disease in one of his heels, and even after a couple weeks off it's hurting him. Seems like 3/4 of his lacrosse team has it or the version in the knees. Soccer is his first love, but I like him playing more than the one sport.

We're getting two girls back next year from the premier girls academy in our area. One was on their C team and realized it's just not worth the money and travel commitment to be on a team that wouldn't beat our team (town club). The other girl was a top player on the A squad. Her family has four kids and this girl plays lacrosse and basketball in addition to soccer. She was double carding and I thought we'd lose her, but it looks like she is coming back to our team full time. We'll see what happens when they offer to waive her fees and limit her practice time though.

Good luck!

 

[upstater]

Are the kids having fun at least? My friends on that tourney circuit are miserable, but I guess if the kids are having fun it's okay.

My son is feeling really stretched this spring with soccer and lacrosse. He has Sever's Disease in one of his heels, and even after a couple weeks off it's hurting him. Seems like 3/4 of his lacrosse team has it or the version in the knees. Soccer is his first love, but I like him playing more than the one sport.

We're getting two girls back next year from the premier girls academy in our area. One was on their C team and realized it's just not worth the money and travel commitment to be on a team that wouldn't beat our team (town club). The other girl was a top player on the A squad. Her family has four kids and this girl plays lacrosse and basketball in addition to soccer. She was double carding and I thought we'd lose her, but it looks like she is coming back to our team full time. We'll see what happens when they offer to waive her fees and limit her practice time though.

Good luck!

Part of it for the girls is the social aspect, so yes they are having a lot of fun. Go away to a hotel, swimming parties, restaurants, a family get together, and 4 games. They love it. But the expense? $100 in tourney fees per family, $250 in hotel, 5 hours drive, food. Not worth it.

 

[UCweCONN]

My last 12 months: Florida, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and all New England states except for Maine. We're in CT. $5k per year for travel and gas. In total, it's costing me about $10k for my daughter to play at a high level.....and likely go to a DIII school to play.....

 

[upstater]

My last 12 months: Florida, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and all New England states except for Maine. We're in CT. $5k per year for travel and gas. In total, it's costing me about $10k for my daughter to play at a high level.....and likely go to a DIII school to play.....

And now my daughter is one of 2 kids at our premier team ID'd to be part of a Development Academy team. Non-travel cost alone? $6k. We said no. She's disappointed. The other kid's parents said yes. Oh well, one of life's many disappointments.

 

[Chuck]

And now my daughter is one of 2 kids at our premier team ID'd to be part of a Development Academy team. Non-travel cost alone? $6k. We said no. She's disappointed. The other kid's parents said yes. Oh well, one of life's many disappointments.

Wow! Congrats to your daughter. She should still be honored to be invited.

$6k is a lot! Sometimes I'm happy with my kids' mediocrity.

 

[ZooCougar]

Are the kids having fun at least? My friends on that tourney circuit are miserable, but I guess if the kids are having fun it's okay.

My son is feeling really stretched this spring with soccer and lacrosse. He has Sever's Disease in one of his heels, and even after a couple weeks off it's hurting him. Seems like 3/4 of his lacrosse team has it or the version in the knees. Soccer is his first love, but I like him playing more than the one sport.

We're getting two girls back next year from the premier girls academy in our area. One was on their C team and realized it's just not worth the money and travel commitment to be on a team that wouldn't beat our team (town club). The other girl was a top player on the A squad. Her family has four kids and this girl plays lacrosse and basketball in addition to soccer. She was double carding and I thought we'd lose her, but it looks like she is coming back to our team full time. We'll see what happens when they offer to waive her fees and limit her practice time though.

Good luck!

I think Riley is done with this soccer setup after this spring season. We had six tournaments, one in Manhattan, KS and the other in Omaha. He's burned out. Two games on Sat/Sun sometimes 6-7 hours in between. He plays basketball in the winter and he never has to leave town. Funny how they can do youth basketball like that and not soccer and it costs far less. He plays well, scores a few goals every weekend but the traveling and the whole weekends getting nuked is starting to get at him.

The whole system is a racket. As Pudge said, it's glorified day care designed to separate parents from their money. And it's not like it's been churning out world class talent anyways.

 

[ZooCougar]

And now my daughter is one of 2 kids at our premier team ID'd to be part of a Development Academy team. Non-travel cost alone? $6k. We said no. She's disappointed. The other kid's parents said yes. Oh well, one of life's many disappointments.

That's ridiculous. So I guess if a kid can't afford the fee then by default the kid is not talented enough. You guys declined so a less talented player will get that opportunity. Now imagine the scale of this happening nationwide and it's easy to see how we water down our talent pools this way.

Pay to play has got to go.

 

[upstater]

That's ridiculous. So I guess if a kid can't afford the fee then by default the kid is not talented enough. You guys declined so a less talented player will get that opportunity. Now imagine the scale of this happening nationwide and it's easy to see how we water down our talent pools this way.

Pay to play has got to go.

The Development Academies are a farce. They are now weakening the Premier teams with this. Frankly, I was already leery of the possibility of moving on from our regional league (Binghamton-Utica-Syracuse-Rochester-Buffalo-Hamilton, ON) to the ECNL, but now the DAs are ridiculous.

This is what US Soccer wants.

 

[Chuck]

The Development Academies are a farce. They are now weakening the Premier teams with this. Frankly, I was already leery of the possibility of moving on from our regional league (Binghamton-Utica-Syracuse-Rochester-Buffalo-Hamilton, ON) to the ECNL, but now the DAs are ridiculous.

This is what US Soccer wants.

To me, US Soccer showed it's tone deaf with the age group changes. I read that their reasoning was that the US was disadvantaged in international competition. That impacts 1/10th of 1% of players, and they could have easily had an "international tract" of teams/leagues that moved to calendar years. It really messed up a bunch of our club's teams, and we've had at least 3 kids that named that as one of the reasons they quit travel soccer to focus on other sports. It's not as much fun to the kids when they play with some of their friends, but a chunk are in a different age group. Were these kids going to be international players? No chance. So US Soccer can say it's no big deal because they didn't lose national caliber players. But that also means that there are a few less kids interested in the sport, which perpetuates the flow of interest and players into competing sports.

 

[John]

My last 12 months: Florida, North Carolina, Delaware, Maryland, New York, New Jersey and all New England states except for Maine. We're in CT. $5k per year for travel and gas. In total, it's costing me about $10k for my daughter to play at a high level.....and likely go to a DIII school to play.....

are you FSA or CFC? Assuming ECNL here.

 

[John]

I think Riley is done with this soccer setup after this spring season. We had six tournaments, one in Manhattan, KS and the other in Omaha. He's burned out. Two games on Sat/Sun sometimes 6-7 hours in between. He plays basketball in the winter and he never has to leave town. Funny how they can do youth basketball like that and not soccer and it costs far less. He plays well, scores a few goals every weekend but the traveling and the whole weekends getting nuked is starting to get at him.

The whole system is a racket. As Pudge said, it's glorified day care designed to separate parents from their money. And it's not like it's been churning out world class talent anyways.

Nail on head - colossal money grab. We're on a club that does northeast travel only (Mass, NY, VT mainly) and I don't see anything with these out-of-state clubs that we couldn't get by staying in CT.

 

[John]

Are the kids having fun at least? My friends on that tourney circuit are miserable, but I guess if the kids are having fun it's okay.

My son is feeling really stretched this spring with soccer and lacrosse. He has Sever's Disease in one of his heels, and even after a couple weeks off it's hurting him. Seems like 3/4 of his lacrosse team has it or the version in the knees. Soccer is his first love, but I like him playing more than the one sport.

my older son had recurring Sever's Disease - when we thought it was finally gone, it'd crop up again. He was practicing 4 days a week and playing at least 2 games a weekend (town and premier). Basically had to sideline him for an entire season.

 

[ZooCougar]

Nail on head - colossal money grab. We're on a club that does northeast travel only (Mass, NY, VT mainly) and I don't see anything with these out-of-state clubs that we couldn't get by staying in CT.

I wish I could say these tournaments don't offer us anything that we can't get without leaving Kansas City! Unfortunately gaining entry to tournaments against higher division teams inside KC is political. The spots go to the big clubs, usually the ones affiliated with Sporting KC. So we agreed to go out to Omaha and Manhattan to test them against better competition.

We made a conscious decision to blow off league play this spring because they league REFUSED (LOL!) to promote them to a higher division despite finishing tied for first and having a whopping goal differential in the 40s. The parents have decided that playing against those teams again wasn't worth the effort so we only did tournaments which actually gets us more games.

Our club itself is low cost, we only pay entry fees and league fees. The coach is one of the Dads and he played on a high level and is really knowledgeable. He keeps the rosters small so that everyone plays as much as possible. In the fall he will add a few players since they will be playing 11v11. It's not the club, it's just the competitive environment. Even if you live in Kansas City, Missouri driving to Overland Park for games can be 45-50 minutes, stay down there all day. Buy everyone lunch and gas. That gets to be a $100 weekend in a hurry. The overhead costs more than the activity itself.

What blows my mind is that parents are actually shelling out thousands of dollars a year to play in so called "Academies" and are basically getting the same instruction that Riley gets for basically nothing.

 

[Chuck]

@John, not happy to hear about the recurrence. We were hoping to get him through the spring and then it would settle down over the summer where he is active, but not crazy. Hopefully that happens. He seems to be fine during games now, but has some discomfort after games. Doctor said he's very inflexible and he doesn't do his stretches as much as he should.

@ZooCougar, why the hell would the league want your club in a flight where they destroy everyone!? That is some shortsighted politics. My son had a similar fall. He had fun for a couple games, but then it got boring and uncomfortable. Our league generally forces promotion/relegation of the top two teams in each 9 or 10 team flight. You can appeal your flighting, but it's not easy.

 

[ZooCougar]

@John, not happy to hear about the recurrence. We were hoping to get him through the spring and then it would settle down over the summer where he is active, but not crazy. Hopefully that happens. He seems to be fine during games now, but has some discomfort after games. Doctor said he's very inflexible and he doesn't do his stretches as much as he should.

@ZooCougar, why the hell would the league want your club in a flight where they destroy everyone!? That is some shortsighted politics. My son had a similar fall. He had fun for a couple games, but then it got boring and uncomfortable. Our league generally forces promotion/relegation of the top two teams in each 9 or 10 team flight. You can appeal your flighting, but it's not easy.

Politics. In soccer terms we live on the wrong side of the tracks.

 

[John]

@John, not happy to hear about the recurrence. We were hoping to get him through the spring and then it would settle down over the summer where he is active, but not crazy. Hopefully that happens. He seems to be fine during games now, but has some discomfort after games. Doctor said he's very inflexible and he doesn't do his stretches as much as he should.

@ZooCougar, why the hell would the league want your club in a flight where they destroy everyone!? That is some shortsighted politics. My son had a similar fall. He had fun for a couple games, but then it got boring and uncomfortable. Our league generally forces promotion/relegation of the top two teams in each 9 or 10 team flight. You can appeal your flighting, but it's not easy.

we had the same problem with him not doing the stretching, which drove me crazy considering how he was obviously in pain a lot.

 

[upstater]

I wish I could say these tournaments don't offer us anything that we can't get without leaving Kansas City! Unfortunately gaining entry to tournaments against higher division teams inside KC is political. The spots go to the big clubs, usually the ones affiliated with Sporting KC. So we agreed to go out to Omaha and Manhattan to test them against better competition.

We made a conscious decision to blow off league play this spring because they league REFUSED (LOL!) to promote them to a higher division despite finishing tied for first and having a whopping goal differential in the 40s. The parents have decided that playing against those teams again wasn't worth the effort so we only did tournaments which actually gets us more games.

Our club itself is low cost, we only pay entry fees and league fees. The coach is one of the Dads and he played on a high level and is really knowledgeable. He keeps the rosters small so that everyone plays as much as possible. In the fall he will add a few players since they will be playing 11v11. It's not the club, it's just the competitive environment. Even if you live in Kansas City, Missouri driving to Overland Park for games can be 45-50 minutes, stay down there all day. Buy everyone lunch and gas. That gets to be a $100 weekend in a hurry. The overhead costs more than the activity itself.

What blows my mind is that parents are actually shelling out thousands of dollars a year to play in so called "Academies" and are basically getting the same instruction that Riley gets for basically nothing.

I get what you're saying but you basically told us you are a lucky son of a gun who gets a really knowledgeable Dad to coach your team.

Not everyone gets that level of coaching/training at the travel level. Our premier team is oddly composed of a lot of dads who not only played college soccer but also coached travel (and some still do), one was an assistant for college. They all have jobs now and don't have the time to devote to it that the salaried premier coaches do.

So this is where we are. Now, with all that being said, I pay $1.8k a year for 10 months, which I can justify since most any activity around here (gymnastics, theater, dance, etc.) costs about $120 a month.

I certainly am not going to pay $6k though.

 

[ZooCougar]

I get what you're saying but you basically told us you are a lucky son of a gun who gets a really knowledgeable Dad to coach your team.

Not everyone gets that level of coaching/training at the travel level. Our premier team is oddly composed of a lot of dads who not only played college soccer but also coached travel (and some still do), one was an assistant for college. They all have jobs now and don't have the time to devote to it that the salaried premier coaches do.

So this is where we are. Now, with all that being said, I pay $1.8k a year for 10 months, which I can justify since most any activity around here (gymnastics, theater, dance, etc.) costs about $120 a month.

I certainly am not going to pay $6k though.

What does that money go towards? Is it all entry fees?

 

[upstater]

What does that money go towards? Is it all entry fees?

The coaches are salaried. It is mostly that. They are all young people or early 30s from Europe; England, Wales, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, a woman from Latvia. Affiliated with Bayern Munich's academy where these coaches are trained.

Here's what we get:

Fall League (4 games)
Spring/Summer League (8 games)
2 free tournaments in spring
Skills training sessions every other week
2x practices Fall
3x practices Winter
2x practices Spring/Summer
Free summer camp (9 am-12 pm, tough for working parents)

In addition to this, each parent paid between $50-100 for each of these:

Fall tournament
Winter League (16 games)
2 additional Spring tournaments

$200+ for uniforms (home jersey, away, practice jersey, 3 pairs shorts, warm up jacket, pants, socks).

All told, without travel costs, $2250.

 

[John]

The coaches are salaried. It is mostly that. They are all young people or early 30s from Europe; England, Wales, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, a woman from Latvia. Affiliated with Bayern Munich's academy where these coaches are trained.

Here's what we get:

Fall League (4 games)
Spring/Summer League (8 games)
2 free tournaments in spring
Skills training sessions every other week
2x practices Fall
3x practices Winter
2x practices Spring/Summer
Free summer camp (9 am-12 pm, tough for working parents)

In addition to this, each parent paid between $50-100 for each of these:

Fall tournament
Winter League (16 games)
2 additional Spring tournaments

$200+ for uniforms (home jersey, away, practice jersey, 3 pairs shorts, warm up jacket, pants, socks).

All told, without travel costs, $2250.

is this a GPS club??

 

[upstater]

is this a GPS club??

Yes